An important part of a happy retirement is a healthy body and a healthy body has a lot to do with what you believe and what you think about. To illustrate what I meant, I have told many of my clients this story about a lion:
If you simply thought about a lion tearing you apart, you most probably wouldn’t have any physical response. But what if you were in a situation where a lion actually walked up to you and stood a few metres away, snarling and watching you and there was nowhere for you to hide. Nowhere to run. No place to escape. The lion hasn’t done anything to you at this point but the thought of what is about to happen is now charged with emotion. Fear has combined with thought to create an automatic response in your body. It’s more than likely that your bladder or bowel will release, your breathing change or your skin become pale and sweaty. And the lion hasn’t even touched you. Your body is responding to thought. As long as the lion remains unchallenged, your response may not change. Every effort to calm the effects the lion is having on you may be of no use. If you tranquillize the lion and take it out of the scenario the cause has now been removed. Your bodily symptoms might well disappear quickly.
If fear can create such a strong bodily change in only a few minutes, then is it not possible that other emotions such as resentment, envy, hatred, anger or guilt could have a similar effect when attached to thoughts over a long period of time? Is it not possible that if you focus on these negative emotions over many years they too could create a physical change within your body?
A client once responded abruptly, “You’re telling me it’s all in my mind!”
“No,” I responded, “A tumour is real, broken bones are real, so are kidney stones and cancer. I am suggesting that what you think about plays a vital role in your health.”
Glenda Hodge